Design for Service

Starbucks Experience Map

Here’s a nice visualization of the Starbucks customer experience [PDF 140K] from the Little Springs Design blog. They’ve mapped positive and negative sensory cues from the experience against touchpoints from the customer journey and supported it with a running commentary of the encounter.

It might be helpful to look at this type of thing through the prism of the peak-end rule. The most striking aspect of the encounter was the crowded location and the uncomfortable wooden chairs. The end was characterized by annoyance. This visualization makes it apparent by showing deviations from the baseline.

For more on incorporating emotional cues into blueprints check out Andy Polaine’s blueprint+ technique.

A lovely and educational customer experience piece, although i was a bit annoyed by his apparent pessimistic bias.
For instance, when he was in the car, all he could do was think of things which could go wrong. This is not exactly the nicest mentality to have when entering into an experience.